quell insubordination. Thomas Connecte, a Carmelite of Britanny, seems
to have been a character somewhat akin to John Malkaw. In 1428 we hear
of him in Flanders, Artois, Picardy, and the neighboring provinces,
preaching to crowds of fifteen or twenty thousand souls, denouncing the
prevalent vices of the time. The _hennins_, or tall head-dresses worn by
women of rank, were the object of special vituperation, and he used to
give boys certain days of pardon for following ladies thus attired, and
crying "_au hennin_" or even slyly pulling them off. Moved by the
eloquence of his sermons, great piles would be made of dice, tables,
chess-boards, cards, nine-pins, head-dresses, and other matters of vice
and luxury, which were duly burned. The chief source, however, of the
immense popular favor which he enjoyed was his bitter lashing of the
corruption of all ranks of the clergy, particularly their public
concubinage, which won him great applause and honor. He seems to have
reached the conclusion that the only cure for this universal sin was the
restoration of clerical marriage. In 1432 he went to Rome in the train
of the Venetian ambassadors, to declaim against the vices of the curia.
Usually there was a good-natured indifference to these attacks--a
toleration born of contempt--but the moment was unpropitious. The
Hussite heresy had commenced in similar wise, and its persistence was a
warning not to be disregarded. Besides, at that time Eugenius IV. was
engaged in a losing struggle with the Council of Basle, which was bent
on reforming the curia, in obedience to the universal demand of
Christendom, and Sigismund's envoys were representing to Eugenius, with
more strength than courtliness, the disastrous results to be expected
from his efforts to prorogue the council. Connecte might well be
suspected of being an emissary of the fathers of Basle, or, if not, his
eloquence at least was a dangerous element in the perturbed state of
public opinion. Twice Eugenius sent for him, but he refused to come,
pretending to be sick; then the papal treasurer was sent to fetch him,
but on his appearing Thomas jumped out of the window and attempted to
escape. He was promptly secured and carried before Eugenius, who
commissioned the Cardinals of Rouen and Navarre to examine him. These
found him suspect of heresy; he was duly tried and condemned as a
heretic, and his inconsiderate zeal found a lasting quietus at the
stake.[217]
* * * * *
There are certain points of resemblance between Thomas Connecte and
Girolamo Savonarola, but the Italian was a man of far rarer intellectual
and spiritual gifts than the Breton. With equal moral earnestness, his
plans and aspirations were wider and of more dangerous import, and they
led him into a sphere of political activity in which his fate was
inevitable from the beginning.
In Italy the revival of letters, while elevating the intellectual
faculties, had been accompanied with deeper degradation in both the
moral and spiritual condition of society. Without removing superstition,
it had rendered scepticism fashionable, and it had weakened the
sanctions of religion without supplying another basis for morality. The
world has probably never seen a more defiant disregard of all law, human
and divine, than that displayed by both the Church and the laity during
the pontificates of Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. and Alexander VI.
Increase of culture and of wealth seemed only to afford new attractions
and enlarged opportunities for luxury and vice, and from the highest to
the lowest there was indulgence of unbridled appetites, with a cynical
disregard even of hypocrisy. To the earnest believer it might well seem
that God's wrath could not much longer be restrained, and that
calamities must be impending which would sweep away the wicked and
restore to the Church and to mankind the purity and simplicity fondly
ascribed to primitive ages. For centuries a succession of
prophets--Joachim of Flora, St. Catharine of Siena, St. Birgitta of
Sweden, the Friends of God, Tommasino of Foligno, the Monk
Telesforo--had arisen with predictions which had been received with
reverence, and as time passed on and human wickedness increased, some
new messenger of God seemed necessary to recall his erring children to a
sense of the retribution in store for them if they should continue deaf
to his voice.
That Savonarola honestly believed himself called to such a mission, no
one who has impartially studied his strange career can well doubt. His
lofty sense of the evils of the time, his profound conviction that God
must interfere to work a change which was beyond human power, his
marvellous success in moving his hearers, his habits of solitude and of
profound meditation, his frequent ecstasies with their resultant visions
might well, in a mind like his, produce such a belief, which, moreover,
was one taught by the received traditions of the Church as within the
possibilities of the experience of any man. Five years before his first
appearance in Florence, a young hermit who had been devotedly serving in
a leper hospital at Volterra, came thither, preaching and predicting the
wrath to come. He had had visions of St. John and the angel Raphael, and
was burdened with a message to unwilling ears. Such things, we are told
by the diarist who happens to record this, were occurring every day. In
1491 Rome was agitated by a mysterious prophet who foretold dire
calamities impending in the near future. There was no lack of such
earnest men, but, unlike Savonarola, their influence and their fate were
not such as to preserve their memory.[218]
When, in his thirtieth year, Savonarola came to Florence, in 1481, his
soul was already full of his mission as a reformer. Such opportunity as
he had of expressing his convictions from the pulpit he used with
earnest zeal, but he produced little effect upon a community sunk in
shameless debauchery, and in the Lent of 1486 he was sent to Lombardy.
For three years he preached in the Lombard cities, gradually acquiring
the power of touching the hearts and consciences of men, and when he was
recalled to Florence in 1489, at the instance of Lorenzo de' Medici, he
was already known as a preacher of rare ability. The effect of his
vigorous eloquence was enhanced by his austere and blameless life, and
within a year he was made Prior of San Marco--the convent of the
Observantine Dominicans, to which Order he belonged. In 1494 he
succeeded in re-establishing the ancient separation of the Dominican
province of Tuscany from that of Lombardy, and when he was appointed
Vicar-general of the former he was rendered independent of all authority
save that of the general, Giovacchino Torriani, who was well affected
towards him.[219]
He claimed to act under the direct inspiration of God, who dictated his
words and actions and revealed to him the secrets of the future. Not
only was this accepted by the mass of the Florentines, but by some of
the keenest and most cultured intellects of the age, such as Francesco
Pico della Mirandola and Philippe de Commines. Marsilio Ficino, the
Platonist, admitted it, and went further by declaring, in 1494, that
only Savonarola's holiness had saved Florence for four years from the
vengeance of God on its wickedness. Nardi relates that when, in 1495,
Piero de' Medici was making a demonstration upon Florence, he personally
heard Savonarola predict that Piero would advance to the gates and
retire without accomplishing anything, which duly came to pass. Others
of his prophecies were fulfilled, such as those of the deaths of Lorenzo
de' Medici and Charles VIII. and the famine of 1497, and his fame spread
throughout Italy, while in Florence his influence became dominant.
Whenever he preached, from twelve to fifteen thousand persons hung upon
his lips, and in the great Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore it was
necessary to build scaffolds and benches to accommodate the thronging
crowds, multitudes of whom would have cast themselves into fire at a
word from him. He paid special attention to children, and interested
them so deeply in his work that we are told they could not be kept in
bed on the mornings when he preached, but would hurry to the church in
advance of their parents. In the processions which he organized
sometimes five or six thousand boys would take part, and he used them
most effectively in the moral reforms which he introduced in the
dissolute and pleasure-loving city. The boys of Frà Girolamo were
regularly organized, with officers who had their several spheres of duty
assigned to them, and they became a terror to evil-doers. They entered
the taverns and gambling-houses and put a stop to revelry and dicing and
card-playing, and no woman dared to appear upon the streets save in
fitting attire and with a modest mien. "Here are the boys of the Frate"
was a cry which inspired fear in the most reckless, for any resistance
to them was at the risk of life. Even the annual horse-races of
Santo-Barnabo were suppressed, and it was a sign of Girolamo's waning
influence when, in 1497, the Signoria ordered them resumed, saying, "Are
we all to become monks?" From the gayest and wickedest of cities
Florence became the most demure, and the pious long looked back with
regret to the holy time of Savonarola's rule, and thanked God that they
had been allowed to see it.[220]
In one respect we may regret his puritanism and the zeal of his boys.
For the profane mummeries of the carnival in 1498 he substituted a
bonfire of objects which he deemed immodest or improper, and the
voluntary contributions for this purpose were supplemented by the energy
of the boys, who entered houses and palaces and carried off whatever
they deemed fit for the holocaust. Precious illuminated MSS., ancient
sculptures, pictures, rare tapestries, and priceless works of art thus
were mingled with the gewgaws and vanities of female attire, the
mirrors, the musical instruments, the books of divination, astrology,
and magic, which went to make up the total. We can understand the
sacrifice of copies of Boccaccio, but Petrarch might have escaped even
Savonarola's severity of virtue. In this ruthless _auto de fé_, the
value of the objects was such that a Venetian merchant offered the
Signoria twenty thousand scudi for them, which was answered by taking
the would-be chapman's portrait and placing it on top of the pyre. We
cannot wonder that the pile had to be surrounded the night before by
armed guards to prevent the _tiepidi_ from robbing it.[221]
Had Savonarola's lot been cast under the rigid institutions of feudalism
he would probably have exercised a more lasting influence on the moral
and religious character of the age. It was his misfortune that in a
republic such as Florence the temptation to take part in politics was
irresistible. We cannot wonder that he eagerly embraced what seemed to
be an opportunity of regenerating a powerful state, through which he
might not unreasonably hope to influence all Italy, and thus effect a
reform in Church and State which would renovate Christendom. This, as he
was assured by the prophetic voice within him, would be followed by the
conversion of the infidel, and the reign of Christian charity and love
would commence throughout the world.
Misled by these dazzling day-dreams, he had no scruple in making a
practical use of the almost boundless influence which he had acquired
over the populace of Florence. His teachings led to the revolution which
in 1494 expelled the Medici, and he humanely averted the pitiless
bloodshed which commonly accompanied such movements in the Italian
cities. During the Neapolitan expedition of Charles VIII., in 1494, he
did much to cement the alliance of the republic with that monarch, whom
he regarded as the instrument destined by God to bring about the reform
of Italy. In the reconstruction of the republic in the same year he had,
perhaps, more to do than any one else, both in framing its structure and
dictating its laws; and when he induced the people to proclaim Jesus
Christ as the King of Florence, he perhaps himself hardly recognized
how, as the mouthpiece of God, he was inevitably assuming the position
of a dictator. It was not only in the pulpit that he instructed his
auditors as to their duties as citizens and gave vent to his inspiration
in foretelling the result, for the leaders of the popular party were
constantly in the habit of seeking his advice and obeying his wishes.
Yet, personally, for the most part, he held himself aloof in austere
retirement, and left the management of details to two confidential
agents, selected among the friars of San Marco--Domenico da Pescia, who
was somewhat hot-headed and impulsive, and Salvestro Maruffi, who was a
dreamer and somnambulist. In thus descending from the position of a
prophet of God to that of the head of a faction, popularly known by the
contemptuous name of _Piagnoni_ or Mourners, he staked his all upon the
continued supremacy of that faction, and any failure in his political
schemes necessarily was fatal to the larger and nobler plans of which
they were the unstable foundation. In addition to this, his resolute
adherence to the alliance with Charles VIII. finally made his removal
necessary to the success of the policy of Alexander VI. to unite all the
Italian states against the dangers of another French invasion.[222]
As though to render failure certain, under a rule dating from the
thirteenth century, the Signoria was changed every two months, and thus
reflected every passing gust of popular passion. When the critical time
came everything turned against him. The alliance with France, on which
he had staked his credit both as a statesman and a prophet, resulted
disastrously. Charles VIII. was glad at Fornovo to cut his way back to
France with shattered forces, and he never returned, in spite of the
threats of God's wrath which Savonarola repeatedly transmitted to him.
He not only left Florence isolated to face the league of Spain, the
papacy, Venice, and Milan, but he disappointed the dearest wish of the
Florentines by violating his pledge to restore to them the stronghold of
Pisa. When the news of this reached Florence, January 1, 1496, the
incensed populace held Savonarola responsible, and a crowd around San
Marco at night amused itself with loud threats to burn "the great hog of
a Frate." Besides this was the severe distress occasioned by the
shrinking of trade and commerce in the civic disturbances, by the large
subsidies paid to Charles VIII., and by the drain of the Pisan war,
leading to insupportable taxation and the destruction of public credit,
to all which was added the fearful famine of 1497, followed by
pestilence; such a succession of misfortunes naturally made the
unthinking masses dissatisfied and ready for a change. The _Arrabbiati_,
or faction in opposition, were not slow to take advantage of this
revulsion of feeling, and in this they were supported by the dangerous
classes and by all those on whom the puritan reform had pressed heavily.
An association was formed, known as the Compagnacci, composed of
reckless and dissolute young nobles and their retainers, with Doffo
Spini at their head and the powerful house of Altoviti behind them,
whose primary object was Savonarola's destruction, and who were ready to
resort to desperate measures at the first favorable opportunity.[223]
Such opportunity could not fail to come. Had Savonarola contented
himself with simply denouncing the corruptions of the Church and the
curia he would have been allowed to exhale his indignation in safety, as
St. Birgitta, Chancellor Gerson, Cardinal d'Ailly, Nicholas de
Clemangis, and so many others among the most venerated ecclesiastics had
done. Pope and cardinal were used to reviling, and endured it with the
utmost good-nature, so long as profitable abuses were not interfered
with, but Savonarola had made himself a political personage of
importance whose influence at Florence was hostile to the policy of the
Borgias. Still, Alexander VI. treated him with good-natured indifference
which for a while almost savored of contempt. When at last his
importance was recognized, an attempt was made to bribe him with the
archbishopric of Florence and the cardinalate, but the offer was spurned
with prophetic indignation--"I want no hat but that of martyrdom,
reddened with my own blood!" It was not till July 21, 1495, after
Charles VIII. had abandoned Italy and left the Florentines to face
single-handed the league of which the papacy was the head, that any
antagonism was manifested towards him, and then it assumed the form of a
friendly summons to Rome to give an account of the revelations and
prophecies which he had from God. To this he replied, July 31, excusing
himself on the ground of severe fever and dysentery; the republic,
moreover, would not permit him to leave its territories for fear of his
enemies, as his life had already been attempted by both poison and
steel, and he never quitted his convent without a guard; besides, the
unfinished reforms in the city required his presence. As soon as
possible, however, he would come to Rome, and meanwhile the pope would
find what he wanted in a book now printing, containing his prophecies on
the renovation of the Church and the destruction of Italy, a copy of
which would be submitted to the holy father as soon as ready.[224]
However lightly Savonarola might treat this missive, it was a warning
not to be disregarded, and for a while he ceased preaching. Suddenly, on
September 8, Alexander returned to the charge with a bull intrusted to
the rival Franciscans of Santa Croce, in which he ordered the reunion of
the Tuscan congregation with the Lombard province; Savonarola's case was
submitted to the Lombard Vicar general, Sebastiano de Madiis; Domenico
da Pescia and Salvestro Maruffi were required within eight days to
betake themselves to Bologna, and Savonarola was commanded to cease
preaching until he should present himself in Rome. To this Savonarola
replied September 29, in a labored justification, objecting to
Sebastiano as a prejudiced and suspected judge, and winding up with a
request that the pope should point out any errors in his teaching, which
he would at once revoke, and submit whatever he had spoken or written to
the judgment of the Holy See. Almost immediately after this the
enterprise of Piero de' Medici against Florence rendered it impossible
for him to keep silent, and, without awaiting the papal answer, on
October 11 he ascended the pulpit and vehemently exhorted the people to
unite in resisting the tyrant. In spite of this insubordination
Alexander was satisfied with Savonarola's nominal submission, and on
October 16 replied, merely ordering him to preach no more in public or
in private until he could conveniently come to Rome, or a fitting person
be sent to Florence to decide his case; if he obeyed, then all the papal
briefs were suspended. To Alexander the whole affair was simply one of
politics. The position of Florence under Savonarola's influence was
hostile to his designs, but he did not care to push the matter further,
provided he could diminish the Frate's power by silencing him.[225]
His voice, however, was too potent a factor in Florentine affairs for
his friends in power to consent to his silence. Long and earnest efforts
were made to obtain permission from the pope that he should resume his
exhortations during the coming Lent, and at length the request was
granted. The sermons on Amos which he then delivered were not of a
character to placate the curia, for, besides lashing its vices with
terrible earnestness, he took pains to indicate that there were limits
to the obedience which he would render to the papal commands. These
sermons produced an immense sensation, not only in Florence, but
throughout Italy, and on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1496, Alexander
assembled fourteen Dominican masters of theology, to whom he denounced
their audacious comrade as heretical, schismatic, disobedient, and
superstitious. It was admitted that he was responsible for the
misfortunes of Piero de' Medici, and it was resolved, with but one
dissentient voice, that means must be found to silence him.[226]
Notwithstanding this he continued, without interference, to preach at
intervals until November 2. Even then it is a significant tribute to his
power that Alexander again had recourse to indirect means to suppress
him. On November 7, 1496, a papal brief was issued creating a
congregation of Rome and Tuscany and placing it under a Vicar-general
who was to serve for two years, and be ineligible to reappointment
except after an interval. Although the first Vicar-general was Giacomo
di Sicilia, a friend of Savonarola, the measure was ingeniously framed
to deprive him of independence, and he might at any moment be
transferred from Florence to another post. To this Savonarola replied
with open defiance. In a printed "_Apologia della Congregazione di San
Marco_," he declared that the two hundred and fifty friars of his
convent would resist to the death, in spite of threats and
excommunication, a measure which would result in the perdition of their
souls. This was a declaration of open war, and on November 26 he boldly
resumed preaching. The series of sermons on Ezekiel, which he then
commenced and continued through the Lent of 1497, shows clearly that he
had abandoned all hope of reconciliation with the pope. The Church was
worse than a beast, it was an abominable monster which must be purified
and renovated by the servants of God, and in this work excommunication
was to be welcomed. To a great extent, moreover, these sermons were
political speeches, and indicate how absolutely Savonarola from the
pulpit dictated the municipal affairs of Florence. The city had been
reduced almost to despair in the unequal contest with Pisa, Milan,
Venice, and the papacy, but the close of the year 1496 had brought some
unexpected successes which seemed to justify Savonarola's exhortations
to trust in God, and with the reviving hopes of the republic his credit
was to some extent restored.[227]
Still Alexander, though his wrath was daily growing, shrank from an open
rupture and trial of strength, and an effort was made to utilize against
Savonarola the traditional antagonism of the Franciscans. The
Observantine convent of San Miniato was made the centre of operations,
and thither were sent the most renowned preachers of the Order--Domenico
da Poza, Michele d' Aquis, Giovanni Tedesco, Giacopo da Brescia, and
Francesco della Puglia. It is true that when, January 1, 1497, the
Piagnoni, strengthened by recent successes in the field, elected
Francesco Valori as Gonfaloniero di Giustizia, he endeavored to stop the
Franciscans from preaching, prohibited them from begging bread and wine
and necessaries, and boasted that he would starve them out, and one of
them was absolutely banished from the city, but the others persevered,
and Savonarola was freely denounced as an impostor from the pulpit of
Santo-Spirito during Lent. Yet this had no effect upon his followers,
and his audiences were larger and more enthusiastic than ever. No better
success awaited a nun of S. Maria di Casignano, who came to Florence on
the same errand.[228]
The famine was now at its height, and pestilence became threatening. The
latter gave the Signoria, which was now composed of Arrabbiati, an
excuse for putting a stop to this pulpit warfare, which doubtless
menaced the peace of the city, and on May 3 all preaching after
Ascension Day (May 4) was forbidden for the reason that, with the
approach of summer, crowds would facilitate the dissemination of the
plague. That passions were rising beyond control was shown when, the
next day, Savonarola preached his farewell sermon in the Duomo. The
doors had been broken open in advance, and the pulpit was smeared with
filth. The Compagnacci had almost openly made preparations to kill him;
they gathered there in force, and interrupted the discourse with a
tumult, during which the Frate's friends gathered around him with drawn
swords and conveyed him away in safety.[229]
The affair made an immense sensation throughout Italy, and the
sympathies of the Signoria were shown by the absence of any attempt to
punish the rioters. Encouraged by this evidence of the weakness of the
Piagnoni, on May 13 Alexander sent to the Franciscans a bull ordering
them to publish Savonarola as excommunicate and suspect of heresy, and
that no one should hold converse with him. This, owing to the fears of
the papal commissioner charged with it, was not published till June 18.
Before the existence of the bull was known, on May 22, Savonarola had
written to Alexander an explanatory letter, in which he offered to
submit himself to the judgment of the Church; but two days after the
excommunication was published he replied to it with a defence in which
he endeavored to prove that the sentence was invalid, and on June 25 he
had the audacity to address to Alexander a letter of condolence on the
murder of his son, the Duke of Gandia. Fortunately for him another
revulsion in municipal politics restored his friends to power on July 1,
the elections till the end of the year continued favorable, and he did
not cease to receive and administer the sacraments, though, under the
previous orders of the Signoria, there was no preaching. It must be
borne in mind that at this period there was a spirit of insubordination
abroad which regarded the papal censures with slender respect. We have
seen above (Vol. II. p. 137) that in 1502 the whole clergy of France,
acting under a decision of the University of Paris, openly defied an
excommunication launched at them by Alexander VI. It was the same now in
Florence. How little the Piagnoni recked of the excommunication is seen
by a petition presented September 17 to the Signoria, by the children
of Florence, asking that their beloved Frate be allowed to resume
preaching, and by a sermon delivered in his defence, October 1, by a
Carmelite who declared that in a vision God had told him that Savonarola
was a holy man, and that all his opponents would have their tongues torn
out and be cast to the dogs. This was flat rebellion against the Holy
See, but the only punishment inflicted on the Carmelite by the episcopal
officials was a prohibition of further preaching. Meanwhile the Signoria
had made earnest but vain attempts to have the excommunication removed,
and Savonarola had indignantly refused an offer of the Cardinal of Siena
(afterwards Pius III.) to have it withdrawn on the payment of five
thousand scudi to a creditor of his. Yet, in spite of this disregard of
the papal censures, Savonarola considered himself as still an obedient
son of the Church. He employed the enforced leisure of this summer in
writing the _Trionfo della Croce_, in which he proved that the papacy is
supreme, and that whoever separates himself from the unity and doctrine
of Rome separates himself from Christ.[230]
January, 1498, saw the introduction of a Signoria composed of his
zealous partisans, who were not content that a voice so potent should be
hushed. It was an ancient custom that they should go in a body and make
oblations at the Duomo on Epiphany, which was the anniversary of the
Church, and on that day citizens of all parties were astounded at seeing
the still excommunicated Savonarola as the celebrant, and the officials
humbly kiss his hand. Not content with this act of rebellion, it was
arranged that he should recommence preaching. A new Signoria was to be
elected for March, the people were becoming divided in their allegiance
to him, and his eloquence was held to be indispensable for his own
safety and for the continuance in power of the Piagnoni. Accordingly, on
February 11 he again appeared in the Duomo, where the old benches and
scaffolds had been replaced to accommodate the crowd. Yet many of the
more timid Piagnoni abstained from listening to an excommunicate:
whether just or unjust, they argued, the sentence of the Church was to
be feared.[231]
In the sermons on Exodus preached during this Lent--the last which he
had the opportunity of uttering--Savonarola was more violent than ever.
His position was such that he could only justify himself by proving that
the papal anathema was worthless, and this he did in terms which excited
the liveliest indignation in Rome. A brief was despatched to the
Signoria, February 26, commanding them, under pain of interdict, to send
Savonarola as a prisoner to Rome. This received no attention, but at the
same time another letter was sent to the canons of the Duomo ordering
them to close their church to him, and March 1 he appeared there to say
that he would preach at San Marco, whither the crowded audience followed
him. His fate, however, was sealed the same day by the advent to power
of a government composed of a majority of Arrabbiati, with one of his
bitterest enemies, Pier Popoleschi, at its head as Gonfaloniero di
Giustizia. Yet he was too powerful with the people to be openly
attacked, and occasion for his ruin had to be awaited.[232]
The first act of the new Signoria was an appeal to the pope, March 4,
excusing themselves for not obeying his orders and asking for clemency
towards Savonarola, whose labors had been so fruitful, and whom the
people of Florence believed to be more than man. Possibly this may have
been insidiously intended to kindle afresh the papal anger; at all
events, Alexander's reply shows that he recognized fully the advantage
of the situation. Savonarola is "that miserable worm" who in a sermon
recently printed had adjured God to deliver him to hell if he should
apply for absolution. The pope will waste no more time in letters; he
wants no more words from them, but acts. They must either send their
monstrous idol to Rome, or segregate him from all human society, if they
wish to escape the interdict which will last until they submit. Yet
Savonarola is not to be perpetually silenced, but, after due
humiliation, his mouth shall be again opened.[233]
This reached Florence March 13 and excited a violent discussion. We have
seen that an interdict inflicted by the pope might be not merely a
deprivation of spiritual privileges, but that it might comprehend
segregation from the outside world and seizure of person and property
wherever found, which was ruin to a commercial community. The merchants
and bankers of Florence received from their Roman correspondents the
most alarming accounts of the papal wrath and of his intention to expose
their property to pillage. Fear took possession of the city, as rumors
spread from day to day that the dreaded interdict had been proclaimed.
It shows the immense influence still wielded by Savonarola that, after
earnest discussions and various devices, the Signoria could only bring
itself, March 17, to send to him five citizens at night to beg him to
suspend preaching for the time. He had promised that, while he would not
obey the pope, he would respect the wishes of the civil power, but when
this request reached him he replied that he must first seek the will of
Him who had ordered him to preach. The next day, from the pulpit of San
Marco, he gave his answer--"Listen, for this is what the Lord saith: In
asking this Frate to give up preaching it is to Me that the request is
made, and not to him, for it is I who preach; it is I who grant the
request and who do not grant it. The Lord assents as regards the
preaching, but not as regards your salvation."[234]
It was impossible to yield more awkwardly or in a manner more convincing
of self-deception, and Savonarola's enemies grew correspondingly bold.
The Franciscans thundered triumphantly from the pulpits at their
command; the disorderly elements, wearied with the rule of
righteousness, commenced to agitate for the license which they could see
was soon to be theirs. Profane scoffers commenced to ridicule the Frate
openly in the streets, and within a week placards were posted on the
walls urging the burning of the palaces of Francesco Valori and Paolo
Antonio Soderini, two of his leading supporters. The agents of the Duke
of Milan were not far wrong when they exultingly wrote to him predicting
the speedy downfall of the Frate, by fair means or foul.[235]
Just at this juncture there came to light a desperate expedient to which
Savonarola had recourse. After giving Alexander fair warning, March 13,
to look to his safety, for there could no longer be truce between them,
Savonarola appealed to the sovereigns of Christendom, in letters
purporting to be written under the direct command of God and in his
name, calling upon the monarchs to convoke a general council for the
reformation of the Church. It was diseased, from the highest to the
lowest, and on account of its intolerable stench God had not permitted
it to have a lawful head. Alexander VI. was not pope and was not
eligible to the papacy, not only by reason of the simony through which
he had bought the tiara, and the wickedness which, when exposed, would
excite universal execration, but also because he was not a Christian,
and not even a believer in God. All this Savonarola offered to prove by
evidence and by miracles which God would execute to convince the most
sceptical. This portentous epistle, with trifling variants, was to be
addressed to the Kings of France, Spain, England, and Hungary, and to
the emperor. A preliminary missive from Domenico Mazzinghi to Giovanni
Guasconi, Florentine Ambassador in France, happened to be intercepted by
the Duke of Milan, who was hostile to Savonarola, and who promptly
forwarded it to the pope.[236]
Alexander's wrath can easily be conceived. It was not so much the
personal accusations, which he was ready to dismiss with cynical
indifference, as the effort to bring about the convocation of a council
which, since those of Constance and Basle, had ever been the cry of the
reformer and the terror of the papacy. In the existing discontent of
Christendom it was an ever-present danger. So recently as 1482 the
half-crazy Andreas, Archbishop of Krain, had set all Europe in an uproar
by convoking from Basle a council on his own responsibility, and defying
for six months, under the protection of the magistrates, the efforts of
Sixtus IV. and the anathemas of the inquisitor, Henry Institoris, until
Frederic III., after balancing awhile, had him thrown into jail. In the
same year, 1482, Ferdinand and Isabella, by the threat of calling a
council, brought Sixtus to renounce the claim of filling the sees of
Spain with his own creatures. In 1495 a rumor was current that the
emperor was about to cite the pope to a council to be held in Florence.
Some years earlier the rebellious Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who
had fled to France, persistently urged Charles VIII. to assemble a
general council; in 1497 Charles submitted the question to the
University of Paris, and the University pronounced in its favor. Wild as
was Savonarola's notion that he could, single-handed, stimulate the
princes to such action, it was, nevertheless, a dart aimed at the mortal
spot of the papacy, and the combat thereafter was one in which no
quarter could be given.[237]
The end, in fact, was inevitable, but it came sooner and more
dramatically than the shrewdest observer could have anticipated. It is
impossible, amid the conflicting statements of friends and foes, to
determine with positiveness the successive steps leading to the strange
_Sperimento del Fuoco_ which was the proximate occasion of the
catastrophe, but it probably occurred in this wise: Frà Girolamo being
silenced, Domenico da Pescia took his place. Matters were clearly
growing desperate, and in his indiscreet zeal Domenico offered to prove
the truth of his master's cause by throwing himself from the roof of the
Palazzo de' Signori, by casting himself into the river, or by entering
fire. Probably this was only a rhetorical flourish without settled
purpose, but the Franciscan, Francesco della Puglia, who was preaching
with much effect at the Church of Santa-Croce, took it up and offered to
share the ordeal with Frà Girolamo. The latter, however, refused to
undertake it unless a papal legate and ambassadors from all Christian
princes could be present, so that it might be made the commencement of a
general reform in the Church. Frà Domenico then accepted the challenge,
and on March 27 or 28 he caused to be affixed to the portal of
Santa-Croce a paper in which he offered to prove, by argument or
miracle, these propositions: I. The Church of God requires renovation;
II. The Church is to be scourged; III. The Church will be renovated; IV.
After chastisement Florence will be renovated and will prosper; V. The
infidel will be converted; VI. The excommunication of Frà Girolamo is
void; VII. There is no sin in not observing the excommunication. Frà
Francesco reasonably enough said that most of these propositions were
incapable of argument, but, as a demonstration was desired, he would
enter fire with Frà Domenico, although he fully expected to be burned;
still, he was willing to make the sacrifice in order to liberate the
Florentines from their false idol.[238]
Passions were fierce on both sides, and eager partisans kept the city in
an uproar. To prevent an outbreak the Signoria sent for both disputants
and caused them to enter into a written agreement, March 30, to undergo
this strange trial. Three hundred years earlier it would have seemed
reasonable enough, but the Council of Lateran, in 1215, had reprobated
ordeals of all kinds, and they had been definitely marked with the ban
of the Church. When it came to the point Frà Francesco said that he had
no quarrel with Domenico; that if Savonarola would undergo the trial, he
was ready to share it, but with any one else he would only produce a
champion--and one was readily found in the person of Frà Giuliano
Rondinelli, a noble Florentine of the Order. On the other side, all the
friars of San Marco, nearly three hundred in number, signed the
agreement pledging to submit themselves to the ordeal, and Savonarola
declared that in such a cause any one could do so without risk. So great
was the enthusiasm that when, on the day before the trial, he preached
on the subject in San-Marco, all the audience rose in mass, and offered
to take Domenico's place in vindicating the truth. The conditions
prescribed by the Signoria were, that if the Dominican champion
perished, whether alone or with his rival, Savonarola should leave the
city until officially recalled; if the Franciscan alone succumbed, then
Frà Francesco should do likewise; and the same was decreed for either
side that should decline the ordeal at the last moment.[239]
The Signoria appointed ten citizens to conduct the trial, and fixed it
for April 6, but postponed it for a day in hopes of receiving from the
pope a negative answer to an application for permission--a refusal which
came, but came too late, possibly delayed on purpose. On April 7,
accordingly, the preparations were completed. In the Piazza de' Signori
a huge pile of dry wood was built the height of a man's eyes, with a
central gangway through which the champions were to pass. It was
plentifully supplied with gunpowder, oil, sulphur, and spirits, to
insure the rapid spread of the flames, and when lighted at one end the
contestants were to enter at the other, which was to be set on fire
behind them, so as to cut off all retreat. An immense mass of earnest
spectators filled the piazza, and every window and house-top was
crowded. These were mostly partisans of Savonarola, and the Franciscans
were cowed until cheered by the arrival of the Compagnacci, the young
nobles fully armed on their war-horses, and each accompanied by eight or
ten retainers--some five hundred in all, with Doffo Spini at their
head.[240]
First came on the scene the Franciscans, anxious and terrified. Then
marched in procession the Dominicans, about two hundred in number,
chanting psalms. Both parties went before the Signoria, when the
Franciscans, professing fear of magic arts, demanded that Domenico
should change his garments. Although this was promptly acceded to, and
both champions were clothed anew, considerable time was consumed in the
details. The Dominicans claimed that Domenico should be allowed to carry
a crucifix in his right hand and a consecrated wafer in his left. An
objection being made to the crucifix he agreed to abandon it, but was
unmoved by the cry of horror with which the proposition as to the host
was received. Savonarola was firm. It had been revealed to Frà Salvestro
that the sacrament was indispensable, and the matter was hotly disputed
until the shades of evening fell, when the Signoria announced that the
ordeal was abandoned, and the Franciscans withdrew, followed by the
Dominicans. The crowd which had patiently waited through torrents of
rain, and a storm in which the air seemed filled with howling demons,
were enraged at the loss of the promised spectacle, and a heavy armed
escort was necessary to convey the Dominicans in safety back to San
Marco. Had the matter been one with which reason had anything to do, we
might perhaps wonder that it was regarded as a triumph for the
Franciscans; but Savonarola had so confidently promised a miracle, and
had been so implicitly believed by his followers, that they accepted the
drawn battle as a defeat, and as a confession that he could not rely on
the interposition of God. Their faith in their prophet was shaken, while
the exultant Compagnacci lavished abuse on him, and they had not a word
to utter in his defence.[241]
His enemies were prompt in following up their advantage. The next day
was Palm Sunday. The streets were full of triumphant Arrabbiati, and
such Piagnoni as showed themselves were pursued with jeers and pelted
with stones. At vespers, the Dominican Mariano de' Ughi attempted to
preach in the Duomo, which was crowded, but the Compagnacci were there
in force, interrupted the sermon, ordered the audience to disperse, and
those who resisted were assailed and wounded. Then arose the cry, "To
San Marco!" and the crowd hurried thither. Already the doors of the
Dominican church had been surrounded by boys whose cries disturbed the
service within, and who, when ordered to be silent, had replied with
showers of stones which compelled the entrance to be closed. As the
crowd surged around, the worshippers were glad to escape with their
lives through the cloisters. Francesco Valori and Paolo Antonio Soderini
were there in consultation with Savonarola. Soderini made good his exit
from the city; Valori was seized while skirting the walls, and carried
in front of his palace, which had already been attacked by the
Compagnacci. Before his eyes, his wife, who was pleading with the
assailants from a window, was slain with a missile, one of his children
and a female servant were wounded, and the palace was sacked and burned,
after which he was struck from behind and killed by his enemies of the
families Tornabuoni and Ridolfi. Two other houses of Savonarola's
partisans were likewise pillaged and burned.[242]
In the midst of the uproar there came forth successive proclamations
from the Signoria ordering Savonarola to quit the Florentine territories
within twelve hours, and all laymen to leave the church of San Marco
within one hour. Although these were followed by others threatening
death to any one entering the church, they virtually legalized the riot,
showing what had doubtless been the secret springs that set it in
motion. The assault on San Marco then became a regular siege. Matters
had for some time looked so threatening that during the past fortnight
the friars had been secretly providing themselves with arms. These they
and their friends used gallantly, even against the express commands of
Savonarola, and a _melée_ occurred in which more than a hundred on both
sides were killed and wounded. At last the Signoria sent guards to
capture Savonarola and his principal aids, Domenico and Salvestro, with
a pledge that no harm should be done to them. Resistance ceased; the two
former were found in the library, but Salvestro had hidden himself, and
was not captured till the next day. The prisoners were ironed hand and
foot and carried through the streets, where their guards could not
protect them from kicks and buffets by the raging mob.[243]
The next day there was comparative quiet. The revolution in which the
aristocracy had allied itself with the dangerous classes was complete.
The Piagnoni were thoroughly cowed. Opprobrious epithets were freely
lavished on Savonarola by the victors, and any one daring to utter a
word in his defence would have been slain on the spot. To render the
triumph permanent, however, it was necessary first to discredit him
utterly with the people and then to despatch him. No time was lost in
preparing to give a judicial appearance to the foregone conclusion.
During the day a tribunal of seventeen members selected from among his
special enemies, such as Doffo Spini, was nominated, which set promptly
to work on April 10, although its formal commission, including power to
use torture, was not made out until the 11th. Papal authority to
disregard the clerical immunity of the prisoners was applied for, but
the proceedings were not delayed by waiting for the answer, which, of
course, was favorable, and two papal commissioners were adjoined to the
tribunal. Savonarola and his companions, still ironed hand and foot,
were carried to the Bargello. The official account states that he was
first interrogated kindly, but as he would not confess he was threatened
with torture, and this proving ineffectual he was subjected to three and
a half _tratti di fune_. This was a customary form of torture, known as
the strappado, which consisted in tying the prisoner's hands behind his
back, then hoisting him by a rope fastened to his wrists, letting him
drop from a height and arresting him with a jerk before his feet reached
the floor. Sometimes heavy weights were attached to the feet to render
the operation more severe. Officially it is stated that this first
application was sufficient to lead him to confess freely, but the
general belief at the time was that it was repeated with extreme
severity.[244]
Be this as it may, Savonarola's nervous organization was too sensitive
for him to endure agony which he knew would be indefinitely prolonged by
those determined to effect a predestined result. He entreated to be
released from the torture and promised to reveal everything. His
examination lasted until April 18, but even in his complying frame of
mind the resultant confession required to be manipulated before it could
be made public. For this infamous piece of work a fitting instrument was
at hand. Ser Ceccone was an old partisan of the Medici whose life had
been saved by Savonarola's secretly giving him refuge in San Marco, and
who now repaid the benefit by sacrificing his benefactor. As a notary he
was familiar with such work, and under his skilful hands the incoherent
answers of Savonarola were moulded into a narrative which is the most
abject of self-accusations and most compromising to all his
friends.[245]
He is made to represent himself as being from the first a conscious
impostor, whose sole object was to gain power by deceiving the people.
If his project of convoking a council had resulted in his being chosen
pope he would not have refused the position, but if not he would at all
events have become the foremost man in the world. For his own purposes
he had arrayed the citizens against each other and caused a rupture
between the city and the Holy See, striving to erect a government on the
Venetian model, with Francesco Valori as perpetual doge. The animus of
the trial is clearly revealed in the scant attention paid to his
spiritual aberrations, which were the sole offences for which he could
be convicted, and the immense detail devoted to his political activity,
and to his relations with all obnoxious citizens whom it was desired to
involve in his ruin. Had there been any pretence of observing ordinary
judicial forms, the completeness with which he was represented as
abasing himself would have overreached its purpose. In forcing him to
confess that he was no prophet, and that he had always secretly believed
the papal excommunication to be valid, he was relieved from the charge
of persistent heresy, and he could legally be only sentenced to penance;
but, as there was no intention of being restricted to legal rules, the
first object was to discredit him with the people, after which he could
be judicially murdered with impunity.[246]
The object was thoroughly attained. On April 19, in the great hall of
the council, the confession was publicly read in the presence of all who
might see fit to attend. The effect produced is well described by the
honest Luca Landucci, who had been an earnest and devout, though timid,
follower of Frà Girolamo, and who now grieved bitterly at the
disappearance of his illusions, and at the shattering of the gorgeous
day-dreams in which the disciples had nursed themselves. Deep was his
anguish as he listened to the confession of one "whom we believed to be
a prophet and who now confessed that he was no prophet, and that what he
preached was not revealed to him by God. I was stupefied and my very
soul was filled with grief to see the destruction of such an edifice,
which crumbled because it was founded on a lie. I had expected to see
Florence a new Jerusalem, whence should issue the laws and the splendor
and the example of the holy life; to see the renovation of the Church,
the conversion of the infidel, and the rejoicing of the good. I found
the reverse of all this, and I swallowed the dose"--a natural enough
metaphor, seeing that Landucci was an apothecary.[247]
Yet even with this the Signoria was not satisfied. On April 21 a new
trial was ordered; Savonarola was tortured again, and further avowals of
his political action were wrung from him,[248] while a general arrest
was made of those who were compromised by his confessions, and those of
Domenico and Salvestro, creating a terror so widespread that large
numbers of his followers fled from the city. On the 27th the prisoners
were taken to the Bargello and so tortured that during the whole of the
afternoon their shrieks were heard by the passers-by, but nothing was
wrung from them to incriminate Savonarola. The officials in power had
but a short time for action, as their term of office ended with the
month, although by arbitrary and illegal devices they secured successors
of their own party. Their last official act, on the 30th, was the exile
of ten of the accused citizens, and the imposition on twenty-three of
various fines, amounting in all to twelve thousand florins.[249]
The new government which came in power May 1 at once discharged the
imprisoned citizens, but kept Savonarola and his companions. These, as
Dominicans, were not justiciable by the civil power, but the Signoria
immediately applied to Alexander for authority to condemn and execute
them. He refused, and ordered them to be delivered to him for judgment,
as he had already done when the news reached him of Savonarola's
capture. To this the republic demurred, doubtless for the reason
privately alleged to the ambassador, that Savonarola was privy to too
many state secrets to be intrusted to the Roman curia; but it suggested
that the pope might send commissioners to Florence to conduct the
proceedings in his name. To this he assented. In a brief of May 11 the
Bishop of Vaison, the suffragan of the Archbishop of Florence, is
instructed to degrade the culprits from holy orders, at the requisition
of the commissioners who had been empowered to conduct the examination
and trial to final sentence. In the selection of these commissioners the
Inquisition does not appear. Even had it not fallen too low in popular
estimation to be intrusted with an affair of so much moment, in Tuscany
it was Franciscan, and to have given special authority to the existing
inquisitor, Frà Francesco da Montalcino, would have been injudicious in
view of the part taken by the Franciscans in the downfall of Savonarola.
Alexander showed his customary shrewdness in selecting for the miserable
work the Dominican general, Giovacchino Torriani, who bore the
reputation of a kind-hearted and humane man. He was but a
stalking-horse, however, for the real actor was his associate, Francesco
Romolino, a clerk of Lerida, whose zeal in the infamous business was
rewarded with the cardinalate and archbishopric of Palermo. After all,
their duties were only ministerial and not judicial, for the matter had
been prejudged at Rome. Romolino openly boasted, "We shall have a fine
bonfire, for I bring the sentence with me,"[250]
The commissioners reached Florence May 19, and lost no time in
accomplishing their object. The only result of the papal intervention
was to subject the victims to a surplusage of agony and shame. For
form's sake, the papal judges could not accept the proceedings already
had, but must inflict on Savonarola a third trial. Brought before
Romolino on the 20th, he retracted his confession as extorted by
torture, and asserted that he was an envoy of God. Under the
inquisitorial formulas this retraction of confession rendered him a
relapsed heretic, who could be burned without further ceremony, but his
judges wanted to obtain information desired by Alexander, and again the
sufferer was repeatedly subjected to the strappado, when he withdrew his
retraction. Special inquiries were directed to ascertain whether the
Cardinal of Naples had been privy to the design of convoking a general
council, and under the stress of reiterated torture Savonarola was
brought to admit this on the 21st, but on the 22d he withdrew the
assertion, and the whole confession, although manipulated by the skilful
hand of Ser Ceccone, was so nearly a repetition of the previous one that
it was never given to the public. This mattered little, however, for the
whole proceedings were a barefaced mockery of justice. From some
oversight Domenico da Pescia's name had not been included in the papal
commission. He was an individual of no personal importance, but some
zealous Florentine warned Romolino that there might be danger in sparing
him, when the commissioner carelessly replied "A _frataccio_ more or
less makes no difference," and his name was added to the sentence. He
was an impenitent heretic, for with heroic firmness he had borne the
most excruciating torture without retracting his faith in his beloved
prophet.[251]
The accused were at least spared the torment of suspense. On the 22d
judgment was pronounced. They were condemned as heretics and
schismatics, rebels from the Church, sowers of tares and revealers of
confessions, and were sentenced to be abandoned to the secular arm. To
justify relaxation, it was requisite that the culprit should be a
relapsed or a defiant heretic, and Savonarola was not regarded as coming
under either category. He had always declared his readiness to retract
anything which Rome might define as erroneous. He had confessed all that
had been required of him, nor was his retraction when removed from
torture treated as a relapse, for he and his companions were admitted to
communion before execution, without undergoing the ceremony of
abjuration, which shows that they were not considered as heretics, nor
cut off from the Church. In fact, as though to complete the irregularity
of the whole transaction, Savonarola himself was allowed to act as the
celebrant, and to perform the sacred mysteries on the morning of the
execution. All this went for nothing, however, when a Borgia was eager
for revenge. On the previous evening a great pile had been built in the
piazza. The next morning, May 23, the ceremony of degradation from holy
orders was performed in public, after which the convicts were handed
over to the secular magistrates. Was it hypocrisy or remorse that led
Romolino at this moment to give to his victims, in the name of
Alexander, plenary indulgence of their sins, thus restoring them to a
state of primal innocence? Irregular as the whole affair had been, it
was rendered still more so by the Signoria, which modified the customary
penalty to hanging before the burning, and the three martyrs endured
their fate in silence.[252]
The utmost care was taken that the bodies should be utterly consumed,
after which every fragment of ashes was scrupulously gathered up and
thrown into the Arno, in order to prevent the preservation of relics.
Yet, at the risk of their lives, some earnest disciples secretly managed
to secure a few floating coals, as well as some fragments of garments,
which were treasured and venerated even to recent times. Though many of
the believers, like honest Landucci, were disillusioned, many were
persistent in the faith, and for a long while lived in the daily
expectation of Savonarola's advent, like a new Messiah, to work out the
renovation of Christianity and the conversion of the infidel--the
realization of the splendid promises with which he had beguiled himself
and them. So profound and lasting was the impression made by his
terrible fate that for more than two centuries, until 1703, the place of
execution was secretly strewed with flowers on the night of the
anniversary, May 23.[253]
The papal commissioners reaped a harvest by summoning to Rome the
followers of Savonarola, and then speculating on their fears by selling
them exemptions. Florence itself was not long in realizing the strength
of the reaction against the puritanic methods which Savonarola had
enforced. The streets again became filled with reckless desperadoes,
quarrels and murders were frequent, gambling was unchecked, and license
reigned supreme. Nardi tells us that it seemed as if decency and virtue
had been prohibited by law, and the common remark was, that since the
coming of Mahomet no such scandal had been inflicted upon the Church of
God. As Landucci says, it seemed as if hell had broken loose. As though
in very wantonness to show the Church what were the allies whom it had
sought in the effort to crush unwelcome reform, on the following
Christmas eve a horse was brought into the Duomo, and deliberately
tortured to death, goats were let loose in San Marco, and in all the
churches assafoetida was placed in the censers; nor does it seem that any
punishment was visited upon the perpetrators of these public sacrileges.
The Church had used the sceptics to gain her ends, and could not
complain of the manner in which they repaid her for her assistance in
the unholy alliance.[254]
Savonarola had built his house upon the sand, and was swept away by the
waters. Yet, in spite of his execution as a heretic, the Church has
tacitly confessed its own crime by admitting that he was no heretic, but
rather a saint, and the most convenient evasion of responsibility was
devoutly to refer the whole matter, as Luke Wadding does, to the
mysterious judgment of God. Even Torriani and Romolino, after burning
him, when they ordered, May 27, under pain of excommunication, all his
writings to be delivered up to them for examination, were unable to
discover any heretical opinions, and were obliged to return them without
erasures. Perhaps it might have been as well to do this before
condemning him. Paul III. declared that he would hold as a heretic any
one who should assail the memory of Frà Girolamo; and Paul IV. had his
works rigorously examined by a special congregation, which declared that
they contained no heresy. Fifteen of his sermons, denunciatory of
ecclesiastical abuses, and his treatise _De Veritate Prophetica_, were
placed upon the index as unfitted for general reading, _donec
corrigantur_, but not as heretical. Benedict XIV., in his great work,
_De Servorum Dei Beatificatione_, includes Savonarola's name in a list
of the saints and men illustrious for sanctity. Images of him graced
with the nimbus of sanctity were allowed to be publicly sold, and St.
Filippo Neri kept one of these constantly by him. St. Francesco di Paola
held him to be a saint. St. Catarina Ricci used to invoke him as a
saint, and considered his suffrage peculiarly efficacious; when she was
canonized, her action with regard to this was brought before the
consistory, and was thoroughly discussed. Prospero Lambertini,
afterwards Benedict XIV., was the _Promotor fidei_, and investigated the
matter carefully, coming to the conclusion that this in no degree
detracted from the merits of St. Catarina. Benedict XIII. also examined
the case thoroughly, and, dreading a renewal of the old controversy as
to the justice of Savonarola's sentence, ordered the discussion to cease
and the proceedings to continue without reference to it, which was a
virtual decision in favor of the martyr's saintliness. In S. Maria
Novella and S. Marco he is pictured as a saint, and in the frescos of
the Vatican Raphael included him among the doctors of the Church. The
Dominicans long cherished his memory, and were greatly disposed to
regard him as a genuine prophet and uncanonized saint. When Clement
VIII., in 1598, hoped to acquire Ferrara, he is said to have made a vow
that if successful he would canonize Savonarola, and the hopes of the
Dominicans grew so sanguine that they composed a litany for him in
advance. In fact, in many of the Dominican convents of Italy during the
sixteenth century, on the anniversary of his execution an office was
sung to him as to a martyr. His marvellous career thus furnishes the
exact antithesis of that of his Ferrarese compatriot, Armanno
Pongilupo--the one was venerated as a saint and then burned as a
heretic, the other was burned as a heretic and then venerated as a
saint.[255]